People don't seem to understand what the hell people mean when they say the new models will be a selling point for the new expansion. There are many selling points for each new expansion. Dynamic shadows were a selling point for WOTLK. Water for CATA, and the new models could very well be for the next expansion.

These updates need a lot of developer resources to warrant focus on them over the usual amount of content we expect (which is now more than ever), and often these large updates and projects work better for massive projects like an expansion filled with new and large scale novel additions to the game because they can be justified in the place of getting new raid bosses or enemy mobs or whatever else a major content patch brings with it halfway in an expansion's life cycle. When you have a new raid, 5 new 5 mans, and a new continent, you won't tend to notice when they put a lot of effort into something like a graphical update at the same time. But like mogging, you never know, it could very well just pop up as a middle of the expansion content patch. I very much doubt it.

Further, if the new character models are a feature of the next expansion, they can justify not only updating the models, they can justify expanding and creating new options as well for customization, such as the ethnic lore based options Ghostcrawler confirmed they've considered in the past for adding to the game eventually.

---------- Post added 2013-03-16 at 12:03 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Craakar

Never thought about this until I read it, but I agree totally.
That being said, I can still imagine Blizzard using this on their Expansion trailer, if indeed it is next expansion content.

It's no different than the major updates they added to the last 3 expansions you got for free like dynamic shadows and water. It's not just solely about getting people to buy the next expansion, they're going to do that anyways, that's when WOW sells best. While they would be a great incentive people have wanted in the game who probably quit a long time ago, it's a matter of justifying the amount of resources the project gets on it.

As something they can flash on the box for the next expansion, they can justify putting a lot more resources on the project than something they just slip in out of nowhere like transmogging. I think if they do not make this a feature of the next expansion, it would take even longer for the project to be finished actually if it's left as something like a side project they work in their free time without a concrete deadline.

>implying blizzard cares about us
>implying we will see those new models pre-7.0

Implying greentexting is still cool.

Originally Posted by Kilpi

They are both fine.

No they aren't, at least not to a lot of people. Maybe some will like them, but that's far overshadowed by the people (that even play femworgen atm) that would rather have the alpha models. I am all for keeping both, but to a lot of people, fem worgen are far from fine -- and rightfully so. HERPETEESCHLERPITEEHURRSNIFF

Oh yeah, and male worgen lack faces that don't PERMSNARL too. There used to be a calmER face (calmER, not calm), but they decided to scrap them a week before launch or so?

I highly doubt we will see it before the next expansion since it is a fairly good incentive to buy it. 5.5 at the earliest if anything since they said they were going to do a small patch after 5.4

It cant be expantion exclusive.
Only if you have a choice to togle them on and off and they said that making something like that would duble the work they have to do on armors.
Just like overhoul of 1-60zones it will prob be available for all.
Evel trial accounts.

I don't know if new player models could necessarily be used as an incentive to purchase a given expansion seeing as how they'd be applied regardless of whether you had the new expansion or not.

Except that the number of people with active subscriptions who aren't using the latest expansion is extremely low. Plenty of times in the past they've had new expansion features that didn't actually require the new expansion (Cataclysm changes, Inscription, and playable pandaren just to name a few); the goal isn't to get current players to buy the new expansion (that's a given for the vast majority of the population), it's to get new and former players to buy the new expansion.

I guess I'm the most optimistic here because I think they're coming in 5.3.

Why? Blizzard said 5.3 is coming "sooner than expected" (can't find the source but it was on the front page of MMO-Champion a few days ago). If it's coming sooner than expected, we might not see much new content. Maybe a few more dailies regarding the upcoming Siege of Orgrimmar, but nothing big like 5.2. So what else could they throw in to make it meaningful? New character models.

Of course, that's extremely optimistic, but still I do believe it's possible. If not in 5.3, I doubt they're coming in 5.4 because there's going to be a whole bunch of other content in 5.4. They could maybe come in 5.5 but I highly doubt that. So, if not 5.3, then my bets are on 6.0.

To everyone saying that 'Updated Player models' are going to be another shelved project like Dance studio and Path of the Titans (both of which were declared to be 'shelved' or 'put on the back burner' by Blizzard themselves, here's some updated info from a recent Ghostcrawler Interview:

"The Pandaren is kind of the example of where we want to go with that. Where they have facial animations, their eyes move, mouths move. Their fingers are individual and not just one big mitt like the old models are. It takes a lot of work, it’s a brand new model, with new animations that have to match. Unlike the Pandaren, we can’t take say the Tauren and make it a brand new race. At the end of the day, they have to still look like Tauren. It still needs to feel like it’s your character that you’ve had for eight years. They’ve got to have the soul of those existing races. It’s a long term project, it’s going well. We don’t yet have an ETA or how we’ll roll it out though.

MMORPG: As long as my Dwarf looks prettier. That’s a good thing.

Greg: It is coming, and the new dwarf is very pretty."

As we've heard before, the Dwarves were amongst the first to be updated and by the sounds of it are already completed (or nearing it).

This project is an enormous undertaking. People don't realize how much work it is to make these new models AND keep up with the new content that comes every patch (especially with the super-vamped production time on patches in MoP).

To those saying "Maybe they should hire artists just for this project?", take a look at the Warcraft section in Blizzard's Job postings.

Some days, I think that only you and a small handful of posters around here can understand the concept of sarcasm.

Originally Posted by Shambulanced

What's funny (and sad) is how few people got the tone/joke of that post.

Yeah. Unintentional trolling, I guess. My point was that these "new model" threads are entirely pointless. They are not out yet, people! Every such thread ends up being 5-10 pages of people saying "I want new models" in different ways. A thread is supposed to be a discussion, and discussion is supposed to have a subject.

"A NAME IS A CLOAK OF LETTERS THROWN UPON A MAN. IT MEANS NOTHING." - Transcendent One, Planescape: Torment.

I have a good feeling it's nearing us faster than one may think, why? well, I've been noticing along throughout the expansion so far, and I've seen a lot, and I do mean a LOT of reuse of already existing skeleton rigs and animations compared to the other expansions, as most of the enemies in them had new skeleton rigs and animations, less so in cataclysm, but it still had quite a lot of them.

MoP though? not a lot. Noticeably, the only new rigs are on some of the Mantid, the 6 main Shas, the obvious Pandaren, and a couple of the new mounts, and even the mounts don't have a lot of new rigs going on with them, from my memory it's only the Yaks, the Cloud Serpents, and maybe the Cranes? I don't know.

you think character model updates would be expansion exclusive? water update wasnt...

It doesn't have to be expansion exclusive to be an expansion selling point. Some of the selling points of MoP were Pet Battles and the ability to play as a panda, both things which can be done without any expansions.